The Bush administration and the CIA tortured al-Qaida suspects because they wanted evidence that linked Saddam Hussein to 9/11 and could be used to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Middle East expert Patrick Cockburn writes at The Independent.

Mainstream coverage of U.S. torture in general and of the new Senate report in particular rests on three false assumptions: 1. The most important question is whether torture “worked.” 2. U.S. torture ended when George W. Bush left office. 3. The only kind of torture that really “counts” happens in foreign war zones. Let’s look at each of these in order.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs fielded a question about former Vice President Dick Cheney’s ongoing Enhanced Interrogation Press Tour with restrained disdain Monday, calling Cheney’s comments “the same song and dance we’ve heard since literally the first day of our administration,” as well as “wrong.”